Boko Haram: Insurgents didn’t hoist flag in northeast - Group

- A group has said that no terrorists flag was hoisted in any part of the northeast region

- It described reports of such as false and capable of frustrating the ongoing efforts to relocate displaced persons from the region

- According to the group, Nigerians must desist from such acts which encourages the terrorists

A civil society group has debunked claims that Boko Haram terrorists hoisted their flags in some parts of the northeastern region.

The Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC) described the report as fake, ridiculous and totally unacceptable in the face of efforts by stakeholders to relocate internally displaced persons back to their homes.

The group said the false alarm is an attempt at frustrating the ongoing efforts to relocate and rehabilitate the Internally Displaced Persons back to their homes.

SHAC said the information was not true as it remains a figment of the imagination of those merchants of death and profiteers of crisis who have vowed to see to the destabilisation of this country.

The director of communication for the group, Lawrence Audu, while speaking at a press conference on Sunday, July 15, said such report was capable of putting the life of humanitarian workers in danger and thwarting efforts at relocating internally displaced persons back home.

Audu said: “For the records, the Nigerian Military has won the war and no Jupiter can reverse the successes achieved even if they are happy or not. Efforts are ongoing and credible humanitarian organisations have continued to work with the IDPs of which many have returned home.

“At this juncture, we call on all Nigerians to always verify the sources of their information before rebroadcasting because statistics show that fake news and rumours have been largely responsible for the escalation of crisis in most parts of the country.

“Nigerians must be aware that one major component of terror is information flow. Terrorists like ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Shabab and their collaborators create dreadful images to instill fear followed by hate which travels like wild fire. Since negative news appeals more to the human senses, they are shared without proper verification to it's authenticity.

“Nigerians must desist from such acts since it helps the author achieve their aims very cheaply while those sharing achieve nothing but a society divided against itself along ethnic and religious lines."